§29ἔδει δʼ ἴσως καὶ ἡμᾶς ἔχειν οὕτως· νῦν δʼ ὥσπερ ἀγωνιῶντες καὶ δεδιότες, μὴ τρισχιλίων ἐτῶν ἀποβάλῃ δόξαν ὁ τόπος καὶ τοῦ χρηστηρίου καθάπερ σοφιστοῦ διατριβῆς ἀποφοιτήσωσιν ἔνιοι καταφρονήσαντες, ἀπολογούμεθα καὶ πλάσσομεν αἰτίας καὶ λόγους ὑπὲρ ὧν οὔτʼ ἴσμεν οὔτʼ εἰδέναι προσῆκον ἡμῖν ἐστι· παραμυθούμενοι τὸν ἐγκαλοῦντα καὶ πείθοντες, οὐ χαίρειν ἐῶντες· "αὐτῷ γάρ οἱ πρῶτον ἀνιηρώτερον ἔσται"
τοιαύτην ἔχοντι περὶ τοῦ θεοῦ δόξαν·
Perhaps we too should be of this disposition; but now, as if we were anxious and afraid lest the place lose the glory of three thousand years, and some people should desert the oracle, despising it as if it were the lecture-room of a sophist, we make excuses and forge causes and explanations for things which we neither know nor is it fitting for us to know, trying to console the accuser and persuade him, not letting him go on his way; "For it will first be more grievous for him himself," who holds such an opinion about the god.
ὥστε ταυτὶ μὲν τὰ προγεγραμμένα τῶν σοφῶν τό
γνῶθι σαυτόν
καὶ τὸ
μηδὲν ἄγαν
ἀποδέχεσθε καὶ θαυμάζειν οὐχ ἣκιστα διὰ τὴν βραχυλογίαν ὡς πυκνὸν καὶ σφυρήλατον νοῦν ἐν ὀλίγῳ περιέχουσαν ὄγκῳ, τοὺς δὲ χρησμοὺς ὅτι συντόμως καὶ ἁπλῶς καὶ διʼ εὐθείας τὰ πλεῖστα φράζουσιν αἰτιᾶσθε.
Thus, while you accept and admire these pre-eminent inscriptions of the wise, "Know thyself" and "Nothing in excess," not least because of their brevity, as containing a dense and forged-out mind in a small bulk, yet you find fault with the oracles because they declare most things briefly, simply, and directly.
καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα μὲν ἀποφθέγματα τῶν σοφῶν ταὐτὸν τοῖς εἰς στενὸν συνθλιβεῖσι πέπονθε ῥεύμασιν οὐ γὰρ ἔχει τοῦ νοῦ δίοψιν οὐδὲ διαύγειαν, ἀλλʼ ἐὰν σκοπῇς τί γέγραπται καὶ λέλεκται περὶ αὐτῶν τοῖς ὅπως ἕκαστον ἔχει βουλομένοις καταμαθεῖν, οὐ ῥᾳδίως τούτων λόγους ἑτέρους εὑρήσεις μακροτέρους.
And such apophthegms of the wise have suffered the same as streams compressed into a narrow space; for they do not possess a transparency or clarity of the mind, but if you examine what has been written and said about them by those who wish to understand how each of them is, you will not easily find other discourses longer than these.
ἡ δὲ τῆς Πυθίας διάλεκτος, ὥσπερ οἱ μαθηματικοὶ γραμμὴν εὐθεῖαν καλοῦσι τὴν ἐλαχίστην τῶν ταὐτὰ πέρατʼ ἐχουσῶν, οὕτως οὐ ποιοῦσα καμπὴν οὐδὲ κύκλον οὐδὲ διπλόην οὐδʼ ἀμφιβολίαν ἀλλʼ εὐθεῖα πρὸς τὴν ἀλήθειαν οὖσα πρὸς δὲ πίστιν ἐπισφαλὴς καὶ ὑπεύθυνος οὐδένα καθʼ αὑτῆς ἔλεγχον ἄχρι νῦν παραδέδωκεν, ἀναθημάτων δὲ καὶ δώρων ἐμπέπληκε βαρβαρικῶν καὶ Ἑλληνικῶν τὸ χρηστήριον, οἰκοδομημάτων δʼ ἐκαλλώπισε κάλλεσι καὶ κατασκευαῖς Ἀμφικτυονικαῖς.
But the discourse of the Pythia, just as mathematicians call a straight line the shortest of those having the same boundaries, in this way making no bend, nor circle, nor double-meaning, nor ambiguity, but being straight towards the truth, though unsafe and liable to account in respect to belief, has until now given no refutation against itself, but has filled the oracle with barbarian and Greek offerings and gifts, and has beautified it with the beauties and Amphictyonic structures of buildings.
ὁρᾶτε δήπουθεν αὐτοὶ πολλὰ μὲν ἐπεκτισμένα τῶν πρότερον οὐκ ὄντων, πολλὰ δʼ ἀνειλημμένα τῶν συγκεχυμένων καὶ διεφθαρμένων.
Surely you yourselves see many things newly built which did not exist before, and many things recovered which were confused and destroyed.
ὡς δὲ τοῖς εὐθαλέσι τῶν δένδρων ἕτερα παραβλαστάνει, καὶ τοῖς Δελφοῖς ἡ Πυλαία συνηβᾷ καὶ συναναβόσκεται, διὰ τὰς ἐντεῦθεν εὐπορίας σχῆμα λαμβάνουσα καὶ μορφὴν καὶ κόσμον ἱερῶν καὶ συνεδρίων καὶ ὑδάτων οἷον ἐν χιλίοις ἔτεσι τοῖς πρότερον οὐκ ἔλαβεν.
And as other shoots grow beside flourishing trees, so the Pylaia grows young and feeds together with Delphi, taking shape, form, and ornament of temples, assembly-halls, and waters because of the abundance from here, such as it did not receive in the thousand years before.
οἱ μὲν οὖν περὶ τὸ Γαλάξιον τῆς Βοιωτίας κατοικοῦντες ᾔσθοντο τοῦ θεοῦ τὴν ἐπιφάνειαν ἀφθονίᾳ καὶ περιουσίᾳ γάλακτος
"
προβάτων γὰρ ἐκ πάντων κελάρυξεν,
ὡς ἀπὸ κρηνᾶν φέρτατον ὕδωρ,
θάλεον γάλα· τοὶ δʼ ἐπίμπλων ἐσσύμενοι πίθους· ἀσκὸς δʼ οὐδέ τις ἀμφορεὺς ἐλίνυʼ ἐν δόμοις,
πέλλαι γὰρ ξύλινοί τε πίθοι πλᾶσθεν ἅπαντες.
Now those who dwell around Galaxion in Boeotia perceived the manifestation of the god by the abundance and surplus of milk: "For from all sheep there bubbled, like the best water from springs, abundant milk; and they in haste filled the jars; and no skin nor amphora rested in the houses, for wooden pails and jars were all filled.
"
ἡμῖν δὲ λαμπρότερα καὶ κρείττονα καὶ σαφέστερα σημεῖα τούτων ἀναδίδωσιν, ὥσπερ ἐξ αὐχμοῦ τῆς πρόσθεν ἐρημίας καὶ πενίας εὐπορίαν καὶ λαμπρότητα καὶ τιμὴν πεποιηκώς.
"And to us he gives back signs more splendid, better, and clearer than these, having made abundance, splendor, and honor as if out of the drought of the former desolation and poverty.
καίτοι φιλῶ μὲν ἐμαυτὸν ἐφʼ οἷς ἐγενόμην εἰς τὰ πράγματα ταῦτα πρόθυμος καὶ χρήσιμος μετὰ Πολυκράτους καὶ Πετραίου, φιλῶ δὲ τὸν καθηγεμόνα ταύτης τῆς πολιτείας γενόμενον ἡμῖν καὶ τὰ πλεῖστα τούτων ἐκφροντίζοντα καὶ παρασκευάζοντα ἀλλʼ οὐκ ἔστιν ἄλλως ὅτι τηλικαύτην καὶ τοσαύτην μεταβολὴν ἐν ὀλίγῳ χρόνῳ γενέσθαι διʼ ἀνθρωπίνης ἐπιμελείας, μὴ θεοῦ παρόντος ἐνταῦθα καὶ συνεπιθειάζοντος τὸ χρηστήριον.
And indeed, I love myself for having become eager and useful in these matters, together with Polycrates and Petraeus, and I love him who became our leader in this administration and who deeply thought out and prepared most of these things; but it is not possible that such and so great a change could otherwise occur in a short time through human care, unless the god were present here and joint-inspiring the oracle.
§30ἀλλʼ ὥσπερ ἐν τοῖς τότε χρόνοις ἦσαν οἱ τὴν λοξότητα τῶν χρησμῶν καὶ ἀσάφειαν αἰτιώμενοι, καὶ νῦν εἰσὶν οἱ τὸ λίαν ἁπλοῦν συκοφαντοῦντες.
But just as in those times there were those who found fault with the crookedness and obscurity of the oracles, so now there are those who slander their exceeding simplicity.
ὧν παιδικόν ἐστι κομιδῇ καὶ ἀβέλτερον τὸ πάθος· ὡς γὰρ οἱ παῖδες ἴριδας μᾶλλον καὶ ἅλως καὶ κομήτας ἢ σελήνην καὶ ἥλιον ὁρῶντες γεγήθασι καὶ ἀγαπῶσι, καὶ οὗτοι τὰ αἰνίγματα καὶ τὰς ἀλληγορίας καὶ τὰς μεταφορὰς τῆς μαντικῆς ἀνακλάσεις οὔσας πρὸς τὸ θνητὸν καὶ φανταστικόν, ἐπιποθοῦσι κἂν τὴν αἰτίαν μὴ ἱκανῶς πύθωνται τῆς μεταβολῆς, ἀπίασι τοῦ θεοῦ καταγνόντες, οὐχ ἡμῶν οὐδʼ αὑτῶν ὡς ἀδυνάτων ὄντων ἐξικνεῖσθαι τῷ λογισμῷ πρὸς τὴν τοῦ θεοῦ διάνοιαν.
Their feeling is altogether childish and silly; for just as children rejoice in seeing rainbows, haloes, and comets rather than the moon and the sun, and love them, so these people yearn for the riddles, allegories, and metaphors of prophecy, which are reflections of light directed towards the mortal and imaginative part, and if they do not sufficiently learn the cause of the change, they depart having condemned the god, not us or themselves as being unable to reach the mind of the god by reasoning.